They started researching this topic back in 2016 and more recently as part of their LaunchPad project with Washington State Representative Emily Wicks. The original bill Wick proposed died in committee due to the public hearing not being scheduled, but that hasn’t stopped them.
“Representative Wicks has already committed to working with me during the interim over the summer, to reintroduce it for next year,” McCarty said. “[We planning to] reintroduce it for next year and maybe like make some substantial edits to it to make it more appealing [to pass].”

The potential new bill could be different. In the old version, there were three key ideas to protect minors. First, if an account has 30% or more of the content including minors, then the law would apply. If an account is making more than 10 cents per view, money must be set aside for that minor. Third, once a minor has reached 18 years of age, they can request videos of them to be taken down.
McCarty got interested in this topic after hearing the story of Huxley Stauffer. Stauffer is an adopted boy from China with special needs. His adopted mother, Myka Stauffer was accused by critics of using him for monetary gain. Myka recorded videos of Huxley’s life and adoption process on YouTube. Myka Stauffer and her husband gave Huxley to another family after claiming to be unable to care for him, as The Today Show reported.
“There are countless examples of children being exploited on their parents’ social media. One example is a nine-year-old finding out that her mom was sharing her personal experiences, including potty training,” McCarty states on their Change.org petition.

16 years ago, YouTube was set up as a video-sharing platform. Today, YouTube has 2 billion monthly viewers and has overtaken traditional TV. In 2015, 76% of Americans said they watched cable TV, compared to 2021 with only 56%. Of those Americans who don’t have cable TV, 71% said that they can access what they want to watch like YouTube, as Pew Research Center reports.

Unlike the film and TV industry, critics say the site and others like Instagram and Pinterest have much weaker protections for child stars like Stauffer. One of the only rules that children and parents have on most sites like youtube is that the child needs permission and control from a parent or guardian to use the platforms. The problem with this, critics say, is that all the money goes to the parents, incentivizing profiteering off children.

McCarty is hopeful that next time around the bill will pass.
McCarty said “I think because we got like bipartisan co-sponsorship on the bill this time around, I think it will most likely pass if we can, but there’s a lot of things that we need to address because this is such a new field. The ways to regulate social media are very new.”